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Tony Award-winning Directors: Danya Taymor & Jerry Zaks, In Conversation

EST Re:Members

Release Date: 09/18/2025

Tony Award-winning Directors: Danya Taymor & Jerry Zaks, In Conversation show art Tony Award-winning Directors: Danya Taymor & Jerry Zaks, In Conversation

EST Re:Members

Welcome to the 3rd and final episode of the season, and we are going out with a bang! Founding EST member and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, and 2024 Tony Award winner and two-time consecutive Tony Award nominee Danya Taymor, join our host Rachel Lin to discuss their rocket-fueled trajectories, their rehearsal room must-haves, and how they cope with disappointment. If you're a theater lover, you won't want to miss this conversation between two of Broadway's leading stage directors. Download or share this episode with a friend to keep the conversation going! Until next season...we'll...

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More Episodes
Welcome to the 3rd and final episode of the season, and we are going out with a bang! Founding EST member and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, and 2024 Tony Award winner and two-time consecutive Tony Award nominee Danya Taymor, join our host Rachel Lin to discuss their rocket-fueled trajectories, their rehearsal room must-haves, and how they cope with disappointment. If you're a theater lover, you won't want to miss this conversation between two of Broadway's leading stage directors. Download or share this episode with a friend to keep the conversation going! Until next season...we'll see you at the theater!
 
DANYA TAYMOR is a Tony and Obie Award-winning New York-based director. Recent direction includes the Broadway productions of the Tony Award-winning musical The Outsiders, Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain (Tony Nomination, Dama Desk, OCC Awards), Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over (now streaming on Amazon Prime). Off-Broadway and International: Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons, Callaway Award for Direction, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Lortel Outstanding Play) + Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Group), Emmanuel Mattana’s Trophy Boys (MCC), Rachel Bonds’ Jonah (Roundabout), Samuel Beckett’s Endgame (Gate Theater, Dublin), Jeremy O. Harris’ Daddy (Almeida, London + New Group/Vineyard), Nassim Soleimanpour’s Mr. K and the Flowers (Audible), Korde Arrington Tuttle’s Graveyard Shift (Goodman Theatre), Pass Over (Lincoln Center + Steppenwolf, Lortel Outstanding Play), Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Steppenwolf), Martyna Majok’s Queens (Lincoln Center Theater), among many others. Translations include Alejandro Ricaño’s We Are Getting Better at Saying Goodbye, Luis Enrique Guitierrez Ortiz Monasterio’s I Hate Fucking Mexicans, and Ettore Scola’s Working on a Special Day.  Awards and fellowships include the Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity from Lincoln Center, Time Warner Directing Fellowship at Women’s Project, 2050 fellowship at New York Theatre Workshop, Van Lier Directing Fellowship, Gates Foundation Grant, Rough Draft Residency at the Drama League and the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. BA: Duke University.
 
JERRY ZAKS most recently directed his 26th Broadway show, The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.  He has received four Tony Awards and been nominated eight times. He began his career directing the extraordinary plays of Christopher Durang and John Guare. He directed the award-winning film  Marvin’s Room, starring Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. Mr. Zaks is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theater. He received the SDC’s George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1967, received an MFA from Smith College in 1969, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth in 1999. He is a 2013 inductee to the Theatre Hall of Fame. 

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Host & Producer: Rachel Lin

Sound Engineer & Designer: Rebecca Seidel

Artwork by: Harrison Densmore

Music By: Wendy Marcini

Brought to you by: Ensemble Studio Theatre